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 Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 7:10 pm
Today, my school had a little student life program on world hunger. It raised the awareness that not even America can end world hunger in its own nation. We can't even provide resources to everyone that needs it! Now, the whole speel on world hunger isn't as controversial an issue unless you want to harp about "lazy poor people who don't want to work". ( stare ...nevermind the working poor who work full shift.)
Anyway, I've heard of pro-life arguments about overpopulation that the birth rate is actually dropping. While this is all good and fine (really, it IS! because this means that human beings will have more inherent value, rather than numerical value... that having less humans on this earth means that each human can have more care and resources and stuff). But there's still the looming problem- WE CANNOT CURRENTLY PROVIDE RESOURCES TO EVERYONE! EVEN IF WE WANTED TO! So even if a communistic-type plan was implemented to allocate resources to everyone, we... wouldn't have enough. (not that I endorse communism.)
With that said, I find it reckless to undermine the overpopulation problem. And more reckless to recklessly breed and pop out babies that we can't even guarentee they'd be supported! I have a chinese friend who has expressed these sentiments to me as well. As you know, forced abortions are performed in China. While I disagree with forced/imposed decisions, the situation is ugly enough in China that the government feels like that is how to deal with the problem. It's sad.
...and wait a minute, what about our biosphere too? Can our biosphere contain this many humans? Arn't we shoving quite a few species of lifeforms to the brink of extinction? It's important to consider this because, like it or not, Earth is going to be our home for us and our many future generations. We've got to keep it clean, stable, and healthy. Or else, we're SOOO gonna be screwed.
Am I in the right direction with this? Am I wrong here? I just crapped this topic out, because... oh, I don't even know. xd
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Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 8:03 pm
I agree completely with this, despite the fact that the population rate is in decline, it doesn't mean were not overpopulated as pro-lifers would have us believe. If you look at conservationists reports on healthy deer population growth rates, you see growth AND decline, one year the population could gain 10000 one year it could lose 2000. The human population has not declined signifigantly for a LONG time, we've experienced a steady growth with little loss, and it has exploded with medical advances. Population decline is healthy, it's not a bad thing. Just because our population is over 6 billion doesn't mean it should stay there, nor is it at a healthy level now, we could stand to have the population reduced by billions, and it is all the better if it is reduced by people not having children, rather than mass amounts of people dying from AIDS and malnurition.
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Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 8:48 pm
Grip of Death Anyway, I've heard of pro-life arguments about overpopulation that the birth rate is actually dropping. While this is all good and fine (really, it IS! because this means that human beings will have more inherent value, rather than numerical value... that having less humans on this earth means that each human can have more care and resources and stuff). But there's still the looming problem- WE CANNOT CURRENTLY PROVIDE RESOURCES TO EVERYONE! EVEN IF WE WANTED TO! So even if a communistic-type plan was implemented to allocate resources to everyone, we... wouldn't have enough. (not that I endorse communism.) With that said, I find it reckless to undermine the overpopulation problem. And more reckless to recklessly breed and pop out babies that we can't even guarentee they'd be supported! I have a chinese friend who has expressed these sentiments to me as well. As you know, forced abortions are performed in China. While I disagree with forced/imposed decisions, the situation is ugly enough in China that the government feels like that is how to deal with the problem. It's sad. ...and wait a minute, what about our biosphere too? Can our biosphere contain this many humans? Arn't we shoving quite a few species of lifeforms to the brink of extinction? It's important to consider this because, like it or not, Earth is going to be our home for us and our many future generations. We've got to keep it clean, stable, and healthy. Or else, we're SOOO gonna be screwed. Am I in the right direction with this? Am I wrong here? I just crapped this topic out, because... oh, I don't even know. xd Only in developed countries are the birth rates actually dropping. But what cancels this out is the fact that people are not dieing as quickly as they used to thanks to medicine and the like. So in America people are having fewer babies per couple. Population law says that for population to be stable, one person can have another person (child) to replace them. But there are so many old people it is the death rate which is causing the overpopulation. But you are right. The main problem with birth rate is in developing nations. Unfortunately people in those countries do not have proper education or resources to safe sex methods (which is a huge reason why AIDS is an epidemic in Africa). I think deep down most people know that the earth is doomed. But they don't care.
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